Lavy's Welding Inc

I am responding to the letter concerning a boat repair.  Let's start from the beginning; the customer came to our shop wanting water leaks repaired on his boat.  He had a general idea of some of the leaking areas, however right off the bat it was discussed that we had to remove the "Flex...

Seal" from the bottom of the boat in order to even begin to do any weld repairs.  I explained to the customer that aluminum can have no contaminates in the weld or it doesn't seal, the customer said he understood.  We never talked final costs only hourly rates and shop supply costs.  For aluminum, the hourly rate is $100.  So, the boat was left for repairs.  We started by cleaning debris from the boat so a water test can be performed.  We put water in the boat and locate leaks from underneath.  We mark the leaks and then drain the boat and turn it over to begin the repairs.  In the case of small leaks we can weld those closed, in the case of larger leaks we will weld on a patch.  After the initial repairs are made the boat is turned upright and water tested again for any other leaks.  If more are found we continue with repairs until no-more leaks are found.  This is a very time consuming process and it is costly for me in hours spent by my employees.  I did not have a dollar amount or limit for this repair or we would have stopped at the preapproved amount.  Actually, we won't start a project like this for $100.  When I spoke to the customer I could tell he was not happy about the amount owed for this boat repair.  He offered to make payments, I agreed.  He dropped off $300 when I was out of the office and when I returned I called him and told him that $300 was sufficient and I will consider it paid.  The customer returned and picked up  his boat and I thought we were finished with this issue.In closing, I will accept responsibility for not confirming the customer was not under the impression that we would get all of his leak issue repaired for $100.  However, if the customer would have made it clear that he only wanted to spend $100, we would not have started at all.  My employee spent more that a day testing and welding the customer's boat.  We are a small shop and pride ourselves in quality work.  However, we cannot do extensive repairs without getting paid.  I have been more than fair with the customer and I hope my explanation settles the issue.  The last thing I want is to have a customer upset.  Thank you for hearing both sides of the story.